Portable Psalter; England, North (?); 13th century, end

Title

Portable Psalter; England, North (?); 13th century, end

Shelfmark

MS. Ashmole 1282

Place of origin

England, North(?)

Date

13th century, end

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment; paper fly-leaves

Physical extent

213 leaves

Hands

Formal Gothic book hand; dark brown ink.

Decoration

Blue KL monograms with red and blue penwork in the calendar.

Illuminated initials at liturgical divisions are all cut out apart from the partly damaged initial D(omine) (psalm 101) on fol. 120r. The initial is in a square frame, on gold background, decorated with tendrils and foliage. A dragon’s body with the head biting the initial forms the tail of D and part of foliate decorations extending into the left and lower margins.

Partial border, fol. 120r, see above.

2-line blue initials with red and blue penwork at the beginnings of psalms, canticles, litany and prayers.

1-line alternating red and blue initials with contrasting blue or red penwork at the beginnings of verses.

Penwork line-endings in red and blue.

Musical notation

Draft musical notation on fol. 193v.

Binding

Brown leather over pasteboard, 18th century (?). Double blind fillet lines round the outer edge of covers, and approximately 30 mm from the spine. Rebacked at the Bodleian with the original spine relaid. Four raised bands on spine; the second compartment stamped in gilt with a wreath enclosing a coat of arms of Elias Ashmole (quartered, single fleur-de-lis in the upper left corner). Gilt lettering on spine ‘Ash: || 1282’. Laid paper pastedowns and fly-leaves.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: transferred from the Ashmolean Museum in 1860.

Provenance

Saints venerated in the north of England in the calendar and litany. Localized to Chester by Morgan (1988), but Werburgh is absent from the litany (cf. the litany of MS. Tanner 169*, where she is invoked twice and is the third among the virgins after Mary Magdalene and Mary of Egypt) and is not particularly prominent in the calendar (only one feast is included and it is in red, whereas most major feasts are in blue; cf. MS. Tanner 169*). Localized to Chichester by van Dijk (1958), because of the prominence of Richard of Chichester in the calendar, whose feast is in blue, but Richard of Chichester is not in the litany.

Motto (?), ‘Nemo sine crimine vivit’, added in a post-medieval hand (fol. 96v).

Elias Ashmole (1617–1692), see ODNB.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: donated by Ashmole to Oxford University in 1677.